Tennessee's 2006 turkey brood survey was only slightly better than the 2005 survey.
The survey, conducted each year in the late summer and early fall by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, measures the number of hens that are having poults and how many surviving poults they're hatching. The survey has been conducted each year since 1981.
In 2005, the brood survey was one of the poorest on record. The percentage of hens without poults was by far the highest on record — exceeding the previous high by better than 10 percent — while the ratio of poults per hen and the average poults per brood were the second-poorest numbers in the survey's 25-year history.
While the 2006 survey was slightly better than the 2005 survey, the numbers were still poorer across the board than the survey's 26-year averages.
In the 2006 survey, TWRA sampled significantly more hens than in 2005. A total of 707 hens and 2,768 turkeys were reported, compared to 2005, when 369 hens and 1,540 turkeys were reported.
The survey found 44.3% of hens without poults. That was better than in 2005, when the survey found 49.9% of hens without poults, but significantly poorer than the 26-year average of 26.5% of hens without poults. In 2004, 34.7 percent of hens were without poults, while in 2003 that number was 39.4 percent and in 2002 was 26.4%.
The survey found a ratio of 2.57 poults per hen, nearly the same as 2005's 2.61 poults per hen. That's still significantly lower than the 26-year average of 4.3 poults per hen. The survey has now found fewer than three poults per hen each year since 2002, when it found a ratio of 3.8 poults per hen.
Meanwhile, the 2006 poults per brood finding was up substantially over 2005, with an average of 6.0 poults per brood. In 2005, the average was 4.97 poults per brood. But the 2006 average is still slightly lower than the 26-year average, which is 6.4 poults per brood.
A total number of 1,819 poults were observed in 2006, compared to 964 in 2005.
Brood Survey findings for past 10 years:
| YEAR | % HENS WITHOUT POULTS | POULTS PER HEN RATIO | POULTS PER BROOD |
| 2006 | |||
| 2005 | |||
| 2004 | |||
| 2003 | |||
| 2002 | |||
| 2001 | |||
| 2000 | |||
| 1999 | |||
| 1998 | |||
| 1997 |
